| http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20071130/NATION04/111300098
China in Afghanistan
Pentagon officials now say the Afghan government's recent decision to award a copper mining contract to a Chinese company is worse than first reported.
It turns out NASA and the Pentagon helped locate the copper mine and other valuable resources with the help of a converted bomber called a WB-57. Since late 2006, the survey jet has been conducting high-level aerial-mapping missions in search of resources.
Defense officials say the NASA and Pentagon mappers discovered large mineral deposits, including copper, throughout the country, and supplied the maps to the new Afghan government.
As reported in this space last week, Pentagon officials were angered that the Bush administration allowed the Afghan government to award a huge mining contract to the state-run China Metallurgical Group Corp. to develop the Aynak mine, in Logar province south of Kabul.
Press reports said the mine initially was started under Soviet occupation in the 1980s, but defense officials said its resources were pinpointed by NASA, making the Chinese concession a benefit of U.S. taxpayer dollars.
Officials said there are reports from Afghanistan that the Chinese paid bribes to Afghan officials in order to get the contract over bids made by U.S., Canadian and Australian companies.
State Department officials say the awarding of the contract to the Chinese company, valued at some $3 billion, shows that the government of Hamid Karzai is not in the pocket of the U.S.
Defense officials are upset that the Afghan government was not pressured to at least pick a company from a country that has sent troops who are fighting and dying to rid Afghanistan of extremists.
The mapping was carried out under an agreement between the U.S. Geological Survey and Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines. A NASA spokesman said the State Department authorized the "nationwide geochemical and geophysical" mapping in support of U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. Trade and Development Agency programs to search for oil and gas, water and coal, and to conduct earthquake hazard assessments.
The idea is that if those resources are developed, it will reduce Afghanistan's reliance on opium farming.
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